Reporter sees another title for Tipton

And then there was one.

For the second straight season there is one area football team playing this week and that team is again Tipton.

The Tigers will battle Ryan tonight at 7 p.m. at Southern Nazarene’s football stadium in northwest Bethany.

Once again, the Tigers come in unbeaten with another chance to cap a perfect season with a victory in the Class C championship game.

Like we saw last week when Heritage Hall and Marlow met for the second time in the season, tonight’s Class C battle is also featuring two teams from the same district. In that earlier matchup the Tigers earned a tough 40-32 victory, one of just two of Tipton’s 13 wins that went the distance. The other 11 games were ended on the 45-point mercy rule.

It’s been the same in the playoffs as the Tigers have routed Buffalo, 56-6; Graham-Dustin, 56-6; and Waynoka, 54-0, last week in the semifinals which was a rematch of last season’s title victory.

Travis White said earlier in the playoffs that he was confidence his 2022 Tigers were the best team in the state but he wasn’t sure how they would perform this time around after several key departures to graduation, most notably Prince Dweh, one of the best eight-man players in recent years.

However, players like Johnny Fernandez, Ryken Shallenberger and Cameron Ramirez provide one of the things that makes the Tigers so dangerous—speed. Tipton has a top track program and each year the Tigers turn that into success on the gridiron.

The Cowboys of Ryan are not a team that the Tigers can overlook as the previous meeting proved. Coach Tony Tomberlin has a good group led by Racen Williams and Carsen Rodriguez and several tough role players who just go about their work on each play.

Clearly this will be a game where both teams are explosive and can score, so it could be similar to the first meeting.

In the end it’s hard not to go with a team that is coached by two guys who have been there and won titles before and we see this score: Tipton 45, Ryan 38.